Christine Amanpour, host of ABC’s This Week, asked Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum to “justify” continuing his campaign for president given that his daughter, Bella, has very poor health. Santorum explained that he hopes to win the presidency in part to ensure “that we have a country that respects her life.”
“You’ve been very public and have been very emotional, of course, talking about your young daughter, Bella, you, you’ve said, has basically a life that’s measured in days and weeks,” Amanpour said to Santorum during an interview this morning. “And as a mother, I just wonder how you can keep going and how you justify this with so much personal toll at home?” she asked, adding “given the polls.”
Santorum, who said he “was with [Bella] last night,” explained to Amanpour that he’s not worried about low polls right now. “I worry about what I’m trying to do to be the best father and husband I can be,” he said. “And obviously a big part of that is making sure that we have a country that respects her life and a country that is free and safe and prosperous for all of my children.”
Bella Santorum has Trisomy 18, “a genetic disorder which is fatal before birth in 90 per cent of cases.” She is three-and-a-half years old.
He added, “[G]iven this is really I believe the most critical election in the history of the country that I had to step up and make sacrifices, like everybody does, to make our country a better country.”
Earlier in the interview, Santorum told Amanpour that “if you look at every poll, we keep moving up, moving up slowly,” adding that he believes a significant number of Iowa caucusgoers remain undecided.
